Winter on Sesame Street

thought maybe we'd talk about various skits releating to the season. hears 1. this was a street scene that went back to probably the mid 70s but was suprisingly used in a 1982 episode about SS getting snow. Mr. Hooper was about to shovel snow and the Amazing Mumford in there and decides to make the snow disappear. well it does but after that Mr. Hooper goes inside and the snow ends up in there. so Mumford makes it disappear again. but then somebody comes in and inquired about the snow in front of the store and hooper says it's gone. but steps outside again and it's there again. Momford says he'll wave his magic wand but then Mr. Hooper says oh no here's the shovel and you shovel thre snow instead. probbaly not the exact words but something like that.

One snow scene that particularly stands out in my mind is when The Count approaches one of the male adults, who is about to shovel the snow off the top of the balustrade of the 123 stoop. The Count steps in and decides he wants to "count the snow" on the ledge there. The adult says something like "Are you kidding? The snow is so powdery, it would take you weeks to count all the snowflakes." The Count thought that would be just great! In the end they came to a compromise: The Count would count the number of shovels-full it took to clear off the balustrade. There were six.

Sesame Street was well detailed for the weeks that there was snow on the ground. In fact, I seem to recall that in following weeks the snow didn't just suddenly disappear; we watched it gradually "melt" away on successive days. I wonder what they used. Shredded polystyrene?

There were also a number of rainy day shows. Unlike snow, rain could be here today gone tomorrow. It is amazing how they managed to rain on the set without damaging the cameras or other electrical equipment.

One of the more famous episodes, that being "SS goes to Puerto Rico" actually begins showing everyone dressed up in winter clothes saying good bye to Maria as she gets on the bus to go to the airport. Then, after the bus leaves, as everyone runs to get their bags to catch the next bus to the airport and follow her, it shows skifs of snow all along the edges of the street.

I remember in the early 80's, there was a two week long snow saga. It started with Maria's cousin visiting from Puerto Rico to see what snow was like. It was a marvelous experience for her.

Also, Big Bird received a visit from one of his relatives. His cousin, Zero the Penguin who was a black and white penguin with a blue beak voiced by Richard Hunt. Zero had a wonderful time on Sesame Street and he built himself an igloo in Big Bird's house.

But when the sun came out, all the ice melted, and Zero was feeling very uncomfortable. And it the end, it showed Maria's cousin and Zero getting in a taxi cab saying goodbye to everyone.